Walking Down the Aisle

By Sweet Fruit

Walking Down the Aisle - Guide to Low Carb Plant-based Sustainable Food

Happy Mind, Happy Life!  Nothing feels better than to eat food that makes you feel good physically and mentally.  Find out how our Sweet Fruit founder, Michelle, a food scientist and nutritionist, makes her food choices.

Reading the Nutritional Facts label: I always look at 3 things on a label: serving size, net carbs and sodium.  Serving size is the amount of food it used in order to calculate the nutritional facts.  It would make a huge difference if it used 50g  instead of 250g.  Next, I would look at net carbs because it affects the blood sugar directly as the body needs to break them down into glucose.  To calculate the net carbs, take the total carbs and subtract fiber and half of carbs from sugar alcohols (except erythritol which you can completely subtract from the total carbs).  Last, it is important to look at sodium level.  Excess sodium leads to water retention and raises blood pressure.  I would stay away from anything that has over 50% DV of sodium per serving.  

Understanding the ingredient list: I can tell a lot by just looking at the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. Food that lists sugar or refined grains as the first ingredient are generally unhealthy. I would usually skip food with refined sugar as the sugar is likely treated with bone char or from GMO source. I also opt for food with short ingredient list.  To follow a plant-based diet, the food cannot have any of these ingredients (e.g. milk, cheese, eggs, caramel, gelatin, fish, chicken, pork and beef). Being sensitive to gluten, I would skip food that has wheat or contain wheat products. Since wheat can be in so many different forms, I prefer to choose food that labels itself Gluten-Free. 

Choosing organic: I will try to buy organic whenever possible since it supports sustainable farming and sourcing.  As an organic certification consultant, I have seen at first hand all the hard work and creativity organic farmers have to put in to grow their crops without conventional pesticides and farm inputs.  Organic certification is strictly regulated by CFIA under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.

To get more tips on making healthy food choices, check out the recipes and blogs sections of our website and follow us on Instagram and facebook.  We love to help people make healthy plant-based sustainable food choices.